86.7% of the health facilities have no adequate stocks of mifepristone as well as misoprostol for provision of safe self-managed abortion. The erratic supply of medical abortion drugs has serious consequences on the effectiveness of the self-managed medical abortion advocacy project.
Successful communication is one that builds a profile to which people can relate and takes into account the need to identify all spheres of stakeholders for efficient and effective messaging, engagement, and advocacy.
The Zambia Self-Managed Medical Abortion project comes at a right time when barriers to accessing safe and legal abortion are still many, forcing women and girls to seek unsafe abortions. Self-managed abortion care therefore presents many opportunities through which such barriers could be overcome.
The formation of Zambia Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ZAGO) Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) was conceptualised in the year 2022 with official registration in April 2023. In making the […]
International federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) has featured ZAGO’s Self-managed medical abortion advocacy project in its monthly newsletter of November 2023. The article highlights project implementation achievements for the last six months. Read full article here
In Petauke for example, youths are engaging many stakeholders including community leaders such as Village headmen, traditional healers, parents and school authorities to share with them information about the dangers of unsafe abortion. While doing this, the young people encourage their peers to visit and make good use of the youth/adolescent friendly spaces in health facilities – to enable them access various Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services including safe abortion. Amazingly, one of the peer educators/advocates #TheresaDaka is using social media, particularly #TikTok, (https://www.tiktok.com/@telia74) to educate the masses about safe abortion. This is a step in the right direction to addressing not only high cases of unsafe abortions, but also teenage pregnancies, and early marriages in Petauke and the province as a whole.
The countrywide study, “A Critical Analysis of Abortion Related Deaths in Zambia: A National Survey” conducted by the Zambia Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ZAGO) with financial support from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) – show that abortion related deaths have drastically reduced.
Our ECSACOG-FIGO partnership is committed to fostering innovative solutions, amplifying our advocacy to strengthen health systems to better respond to the needs and entitlements of women and girls, which includes their right to access safe abortion care.
Advocacy remains one of the strategic ways to addressing these challenges. Therefore, the need for strengthened advocacy skills amongst SRHR advocates and a creation of a strategy for advocacy is an essential part of the health system.
Eastern Province has continued to register record number of teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions cases. As recent as March 2022, the Province recorded 1,536 unsafe abortion cases, while 12,982 teenage pregnancies were recorded in the first quarter of 2021. According the records, 400 of these teenage pregnancies were girls below the age of 15, while the rest were between 15 and 19 years. Sadly, the Province recorded high number of child marriages: 39 percent of girls are married off either before or at the age of 18. This situation perpetuates a cycle of poverty as young girls are prevented from acquiring requisite education needed to contributing and benefiting from socio-economic development of the country.